Fortune Days
by Illusion-Factory
Summary: Elijah was just a small boy when his sister stumbled into his room late one night, and while laughing drunkenly, shoved a decorated pokeball into his small hands. Rated T for strippers
1. Late Nights

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, but that should be pretty obvious by now.

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><p>Elijah was just a small boy when his sister stumbled into his room late one night, and while laughing drunkenly, shoved a decorated pokeball into his small hands. This was actually a common occurrence in young Elijah's life. Not the random gift of a pokeball, but his sister always felt the need to barge into his room late at night or early in the morning, depending on how you looked at the clock, when she came home after having complimentary drinks with her co-workers. The reason for this escaped young Elijah for many years, and it wasn't until he was much older that he realized why his sister did what she did.<p>

In her own way, his sister was checking in on him, letting him know he was loved. And after her brash entrances, Elijah found the loneliness of the day wash away as he listened to his sister chatter at him about her co-workers' latest gossip. Not that young Elijah understood much of the twists and turns these co-worker's lives took, he was merely happy to fall back asleep listening to his sister and know that someone was there. For Elijah had no parents, at least not ones that he could remember, they had died in an accident while he was still a baby, leaving him in the care of his one remaining relative, his elder sister.

And his sister worked hard to provide a suitable growing environment for her younger brother, she really did. But there were bills to pay, rent to meet, food and clothes to buy. His sister was barely out of her teenage years herself, and now had a brother who wasn't yet walking or talking. So she did the only thing she could do.

On some level little Elijah recognized his sister's work was deemed shameful. The townswomen gathered in front of the shops to whisper and the townsmen stared with hard eyes as his sister took him shopping. And for some reason this shameful work had a trickle-down effect on young Elijah's immediate life. His sister worked long nights, she was gone for most of the afternoon and all of the evening, and she slept through the morning. Elijah only saw her when she woke herself early to hug him good morning and send him off to school with the lunch she had just finished making, and when she burst into his room late at night after coming home from work or drinks. She was gone when he got back from school. The result being that Elijah spent most of his time home. Alone. This wouldn't be so bad if he had friends, companions around his age to share his time with. But the children at school, reading the disproving body language of their parents, were quick to outcast him and he soon learned that in the pecking order of the school, he was so low he didn't even make it into the ratings.

Elijah did not understand why adults found what his sister did bad. Occasionally, during the weekends, his sister would take him into work with her. This only happened when Mrs. Liyth downstairs was too busy to look after Elijah for the day. But Elijah enjoyed going with his sister to work, she worked in one of the big cities, away from the small town and the bus-ride there was always exciting. If they arrived early enough, Mr. Tyrone, who was possibly the biggest man Elijah had ever seen and wore only black jeans and black shirts, would let his two Machamp play with Elijah. The two fighting types would take turns giving Elijah grumpig-back rides around the main room, teach him fighting stances or tickle him until he was breathless from laughter and tears ran down his face. Then, when his sister's work opened, Elijah had to stay in the back, what his sister called the 'dressing room' and never, ever leave it until she came and got him.

Elijah didn't mind being confined there; there were places to hide, and beautiful lights and clothes to look at. The ladies Elijah's sister worked with were all very friendly and kind to him, they would let him play with their shoes and scarves and costume jewelry while his sister was gone. One of the blonde ladies, Miss Chrissy, had taken him on her lap once and let him see what she called her 'work station'. He remember the giant mirror surrounded with the bright light-bulbs that made him squint his eyes and how Miss Chrissy brushed his hair nice and neat while the other co-workers bustled around them, busy at their own work stations.

The girls always gave him a peck on the cheek before going out to perform, they claimed he brought good luck, Elijah didn't mind. He imagined this is what it felt like to have a whole bunch of big sisters. Later in the night, when he was very tired and couldn't keep his eyes open anymore, his sister would make him a nest of blankets and pillows on the couch in the corner and he would curl up in them and when he woke up the next morning, he was back in his bed at their apartment.

There was only one time that Elijah had sneaked a peek out on the stage during work hours. He was not supposed to do that. He was not supposed to leave the dressing room or go near the red curtains during work hours. But he had been so curious and so he had sneaked a quick peek. His sister was dancing on the stage, and she looked so beautiful. Of course Elijah had seen her getting dressed up in the dressing room, but out on the stage, under the lights she looked so different. Her dark hair was piled on her head and she wound around the pole like gravity didn't exist. He didn't get to see much more because one of the coworkers found him and after, his sister had given him such a scolding he never thought of doing it again. But she had cried and hugged him so hard he almost couldn't breathe when he told her she had looked like an angel.

"There're only fallen angels here baby." She had whispered in his ear through her tears. Elijah did not understand what she meant at the time. In time though, he knew all too well.

Little Elijah knew his sister's work garnered her many admirers, but she didn't seem to enjoy them or the attention. They wrote her long love letters and sent her expensive looking gifts through her work. She never wrote back and she never accepted the gifts. So little Elijah had to wonder, as he examined the colorful pokeball in his hands, what had transpired that his sister accepted this gift and then gave it to him? His sister, sensing his confusion collapsed on his bed next to him, pulling him close and under her arm.

"Gordy won it for me over in Kanto." She giggled and Elijah wrinkled his nose at the smell of cheap alcohol and cigarettes. "But I'm giving it to you because you're my cute little brother." She sang-song, pushing in his nose with her index finger and laughing at his crossed eyed look as he focused on the offending appendage. 'Gordy' was a young man who rode the same bus into the city with Elijah's sister. His full name was Gordon, but Elijah's sister insisted on calling him Gordy. Elijah himself had met Gordy a few times and he was very nice, patting him on the head and listening with rapt attention as Elijah chatted on about a new TV show he had seen or how he had learned a trick to spell that one word that was giving him trouble in school. It was obvious, even to Elijah, that Gordy really liked his sister; Elijah wasn't sure how he felt about that.

The pokeball dwarfed Elijah's small hands and he had to use two just to hold it. His sister snickered; pulling him close for another hug.

"Did you wash your hair today?" She asked, and Elijah carefully nodded as she bent down to nuzzle his head and place a kiss on the top. "Mmmm, we need to get you a hair-cut." She mumbled through the thick strands of messy black hair. She always said that when she came back, but Elijah knew it would be another two or three days before the trip to the barber. His sister simply didn't have time. She squeezed him one more time and then tottered up and out the door to the shower. While she was gone Elijah carefully placed the pokeball in his lap, using both hands to cover a big yawn. By the time he had finished yawning and re-arranging his bedding to his liking, his sister had returned, smelling fresh and clean, with a pair of pajamas on. She crawled back into bed with Elijah, the energy from the bus ride and booze running out. "Well don't you want to see what he got me?" She asked teasingly, eyelids already at half mast. Elijah picked the pokeball up again and fumbling slightly, managed to push the release button. The Pokémon that emerged was small, fuzzy and asleep.

"Ooooh," His sister murmured, reaching out and scratching the Pokémon behind its ear. "An abra. These are pretty special you know Elijah." Elijah nodded, staring in small eyed wonder at the curled up ball of Pokémon in his lap. He had expected something a bit more…energetic, but any Pokémon was fine. Was actually more than fine, because, as the tv, with the nice old man told him, a Pokémon was a life long companion, a friend. And Elijah wanted a friend more than anything in whole wide world. He gathered the creature in his arms, though it was almost the same size as himself, leaning back down against the pillows and his sister, who giggled and kissed him softly on the forehead, he proceeded to curl around the Pokémon. And the abra, waking slightly itself once it had been touched, curled around him as well.

The abra sighed as the small child snuggled down against him. It had been tense for a moment, when he had caught the small flash of disappointment but that had been overwhelmed by the rush of happiness and relief coming from the small boy. He did not know his new trainer's mind well enough to get more than the vague reading of emotions, but the child was now happy to have him, of that the abra was certain.

"Hey sleepy." The older female, tapped his new trainer on the head. "What are you going to call him?" The abra listened intently as the boy roused himself long enough to mumble sleepily.

"Channeler." It was a good name the abra, now Channeler decided. He could get used to this new trainer, name and life. There was a few moments silence while the boy fell to sleep and just as Channeler himself was getting ready to drift back into sleep, a finger tapped him on the head as well.

"Well Channeler. You'll be my baby brother's Pokémon from now on." Her voice was firm, yet soft so as not to wake the slumbering child. "Elijah doesn't have many friends so I trust you to look out for him and be with him when I can't. He's a sweet kid, so please, be good to him okay?" Channeler considered the words. He was an abra and most of his day would be devoted to sleep, but he could at least sleep near his trainer. He tipped his large head forward in a nod. "Very good." The female said. She stroked Channeler's head. As he once again turned to sleep, her voice drifted to him. "Welcome to the family Channeler."

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><p>Author's Notes:<p>

-Elijah is an OC I created for the use of Digital Skitty in her story Pedestal. If you've read it, he's in the gym leader race chapters, you get to try and find out which one he is. If you haven't read it. Then you should.

-Yes, he's kind of a tragic backstory guy, but he'll be damned if that stops him from making a boatload of cash off these pokeyman fights.


	2. And Early Mornings

Disclaimer: Pokemon, I don't own it.

I said the next update would be pokemon and I remain true to my word.

For fans of this story, important author's note below.

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><p>In the eyes of many of his fellow trainers, Elijah was nothing more than a disgrace to the proud tradition of Pokémon training. He was not a typical trainer, or at least, he was not the <em>right<em> kind of typical trainer. There were the trainers who wanted to become famous, the trainers who wanted adventure and the trainers who viewed and treated each new Pokémon they caught as a friend. Elijah belonged to the class of trainer that was not in the trainer business for friendship, adventure or fame. Elijah belonged to the trainer class that was only in it, to win it, provided there was a hefty sum of prize money at the end.

Elijah had just turned ten when he realized that there was a whole Pokémon training world out there and, this was the important part, _he could make money in it_. Money was the magic word to Elijah. His sister did the best she could but Elijah was aware, now more than ever, of the consequences and toll his sister's job took out of her. She was tired all the time; exhausted was really the word for it and she never really smiled any more. Elijah vowed to get a job himself so that his sister wouldn't have to work so hard or worry so much. But he was too young to go work at a normal pay-rate job, and no store in the town would hire him given the social stigma attached to his sister and by extension himself as well. That was why, when he figured out how exactly Pokémon battles worked, especially in regards to winners and losers, he considered it the best day ever. And not just because it was the day he became a Pokémon trainer.

That day, was his tenth birthday. His sister had managed to arrange to have the day off. Traditionally, his sister would try to have his birthday free, so that she could spend all day with him. A rare treat for Elijah. If it was a school day, she called him in sick and the three, for Channeler was always included, would sleep in late on the mattress that served as their bed, then go out to the cheap diner for brunch. During the afternoon, if tips had been particularly good that week, Elijah might be allowed to pick a new toy or book from the small store downtown, if the tips hadn't been good, then the three walked home and lazed about watching cartoons together and eating ice cream. And so the day would go. This past birthday his sister had walked with him down to the local police station, and stood by proudly as he had filled out the forms to register both himself as a trainer and Channeler as his starter Pokémon.

The important revelation came on the way back. One of Elijah's schoolmates had challenged him to a battle with his shiny new geodude. Undoubtedly Elijah had been challenged because as everyone knew, Abra only had one attack, teleport, making Elijah and Channeler easy prey for experience. However, while it was true that wild abra only knew teleport, Channeler was not a wild abra. He was an abra from the kanto game corner and the game corner would not have had an ordinary every day abra as the grand prize. And so, two lessons were learned that day. The first, of never underestimating your opponent, even if he was the poor social outcast, came when the geodude went down after an onslaught of ice punches. And the second came when the new trainer recalled his geodude and grudgingly held out a small wad of money to Elijah.

Elijah, bewildered, accepted the cash, which while not a lot, was still more than Elijah himself had ever handled. His sister explained to him that on losing a battle with another trainer, the loser was required to give the winner exactly half of the cash they had on them. It was like another world had opened before him. As the other trainer jogged off to the Pokémon center, Elijah had tried to give his winnings to his sister. But she had refused, saying that it was his birthday, and he and Channeler had won the money, so they should spend it on something for themselves. Elijah spent the money on an empty greatball, the beginnings of a plan already in his head.

Later that night, as his sister slept soundly beside him and Channeler lay against his side, Elijah pulled out the thick information packet given to him with his trainer license and began to read. Originally he had planned to not go on a trainer journey. Buying clothes, gear and supplies for the journey would be costly, as well as having money sent to him to continue buying food, and other necessities, and he would be gone from home for who knew how long. Elijah had elected to stay at home to keep his sister company and to not cause her more worry or stress than necessary. But now he was starting to re-think his decision. By the time the grey light of the early morning lit the small apartment room, Elijah had a plan. He would go out and be a traveling trainer. Trainers fought battles and winning battles meant getting money. Money, which would be sent home to his sister, and then she wouldn't have to work so hard and be sad all the time. Genius! Of course winning small trainer battles wasn't good enough in the long term. He planned to enter tournaments. Tournaments always had good cash prizes, even for those who only made the top three and maybe even one day he could qualify for a gym trainer position. But to get that far, he would need a team of six Pokémon, all the badges in order to qualify for more advanced and therefore more expensive tournaments and he would need a lot of training. But first things were first.

He broke the news about changing his mind and becoming a traveling trainer to his sister over breakfast. Elijah had expected a reaction of course; he had just not expected this particular reaction. Elijah had expected his sister to be upset, angry, annoyed, any number of negative emotions in fact, he had prepared arguments and counter arguments. He had not expected her to smile so wide it hurt just looking at her and then envelope him in a bone crushing hug with tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. This obviously confused Elijah at first, but when his sister pulled back from the over enthusiastic hug, she saw his face and laughed, ruffling his hair.

"I thought you were going to stay behind because of me," She explained, still smiling. "As much as I'm going to miss you, I want you to go out and do something normal kids do Eli." Elijah was only ever Eli for her. "You'll meet kids your own age, who aren't from around here. And well, I never got the chance to go on my own journey, you'll just have to call and write often so I can live it out through you. Deal?" Elijah had nodded, still slightly shell-shocked. He was further shocked and touched when his sister walked him down to the bank later that morning and showed him the account she had secretly been putting a tiny bit of money in here and there over the years. An account just for him, so that he could buy food and supplies and have a space to store his own money.

"It's just for you Eli." She said, as they picked out basic supplies, Channeler hanging on Elijah's back like a baby chimchar, fast asleep. "I was going to transfer it over to you when you turned eighteen if you stayed home. But this will see you off and through a good first part if you budget correctly, and I know you know how to do that." Elijah had been flustered in his own way, reflexively smoothing down the bangs that hung over his dark eyes with a slight blush on his cheeks. His sister had only laughed, reaching out to ruffle his hair again. "What kind of guardian would I be if I didn't do this for you?" She had said, smiling fondly down at him as they left the last store, Elijah's arms full of their purchases and 'what kind of brother would _I_ be, if I didn't do this for you?' running through his head.

Elijah spent one last night at home and left early the next morning. All the other new trainers had already gone and it was just his sister to see him off. She hugged him, kissed him on the cheek, stroked Channeler's head fondly and then stepped back. "Good luck Elijah, and remember I'm very proud of you. Don't forget to write." Elijah nodded, not quite trusting himself to speak, and with Channeler once again clinging to his back, turned around and walked out of the village and into the world of Pokémon training.

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><p>Ah-ha, you guys caught me in a pretty awkward place. Originally I had not planned to continue this, like at all. But when submitting what I intended to be the first and only chapter, I forgot to click the story complete button. Whoops. And then you crazy readers had to favorite, comment and story alert didn't you? Be honest. It was because of the strippers wasn't it? I got more first view clicks on this baby than any of my other stories at the time. Back on track, I wrote out this second piece because I felt bad. I even have a third piece written a little bit.<p>

But here's the thing guys: I'm a very bad author. Not as in writing bad, but I get distracted easily. I have upwards of five or six fanfiction projects I'm working on, not all of them will get finished or see the light of the internet. What I'm trying to say is, don't expect too much. I don't have any big plans for Elijah. At most I'll cover him catching a few pokemon, and then cover how he wound up in the Gym leader race. But I just don't have a really good plot line for him and I don't want to fall into the generic follow the OC through the trainer journey story. I'm bad at planning out novel length stories, I'm a short story, sprinter type writer. So I'm trying to plan this out as snap-shots. Maybe five in total. We'll see how it goes.

~Illusion-Factory


	3. Strategy Works Sometimes

Ha ha, oh wow, I should check my e-mail and inbox more frequently eh? Here's the next chapter. Also of note, story name change.

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><p>It was three weeks into the start of Elijah's training journey and he was starting to have second thoughts. He had been doing rather well at the start. Other newbie trainers had Pokémon that were new, obviously. But Channeler and Elijah had been together for years, they knew each other, and on top of that, Channeler had several quite powerful attacks. Between these factors the duo managed to win several upset battles over other new trainers.<p>

But by now the flaws to having an abra as a starter were becoming apparent. Channeler spent most of the day asleep. Elijah had known this, but had thought that Channeler would spend at least a little bit more time awake now that they were traveling and training. No such luck. Channeler still slept his sixteen hours a day. This turned from a slight inconvenience to a large road block. For while he made an effort to fight trainer battles, Channeler didn't always wake up for wild Pokémon battles, Elijah got very good at running away very quickly. And if he had fought a trainer battle, Channeler tended to sleep even longer and deeper than normal.

Elijah had managed to catch a male budew with one of the pokeballs his sister had bought him. But the budew, named Caper, was still too young and weak to be a main fighting force himself. Elijah had caught the young Pokémon mainly by accident, when he had blundered into Elijah's camp site one morning and gotten himself lit on fire by being too curious about the glowing embers of the previous night's camp fire. Elijah had awakened to the shrill screams and frantic movements of the budew , the top of his head leaf being consumed by flame and too hysterical to do anything more than run around in a circle. Elijah had stumbled out of his sleeping bag, still half asleep himself and dumped some of the contents of his canteen on the small Pokémon, extinguishing the fire. Whereupon the budew stopped screaming and sat down in shock and Elijah stumbled back to his sleeping bag, intent on going back to sleep now that the noise had been dealt with. He woke up properly later that morning to a small, wet and singed budew sleeping on his stomach and after all three had had breakfast, had tapped the budew with a pokeball and caught his first Pokémon.

Usually Elijah could win one trainer battle a day and then he would spend the rest of the day ducking out of sight of other trainers and trying to avoid running into wild Pokémon. This method hinged mostly on luck and skill at hiding, of which Elijah was a pro. But it wasn't helping his Pokémon prepare for the first gym and it wasn't helping him make much money. It seemed that most trainers were smart enough to make use of bank accounts and carried only a sparse amount with them.

The morning of his third Monday into his adventure found Elijah sitting on a rock counting the past day's winnings out. At his feet Caper was attempting to get a sleeping Channeler to play with him. The budew would tip-toe up to the bigger Pokémon, tickle the bottom of the abra's paw and then jump away. So far Channeler had only twitched his tail. But for Caper, hope sprung eternal and he leapt right back into action as soon as it became apparent that Channeler wasn't going to move. Elijah sighed, he hadn't made that much more money than when he had started. And he had a feeling it had to do with his team. They weren't very good fighters. Channeler would be a great asset once he evolved, but Caper... Roselia weren't really battle Pokémon. They were small and delicate. More suited to Pokémon contests then to battles. Elijah winced as Caper poked Channeler too hard and the abra slowly fell on his side, landing on the smaller Pokémon. Caper was also certainly not the sharpest tool in the shed either. He reached down and detangled the bawling budew from Channeler and absently patted the grass type on the head in an effort to stop his shrill cries.

What he needed, Elijah thought as he set Caper back down on the ground and edged him over to play in a patch of flowers away from Channeler, was some real fighting muscle. A Pokémon strong enough to win battles and back up his other more, erratic team mates is what Elijah had in mind. Despite some unfortunate directional difficulties, which were a whole other story in themselves, when he started, Elijah was still only in the lower ranked routes, and tough Pokémon just really did not exist around here. He leaned back with a sigh, Caper happily playing in the small patch of wild flowers and Channeler was still sleeping in a jumbled pile by his foot, and looked up at the sky, things weren't quite going how he wanted them to, but everyone had trouble when they were just starting out right?

As these thoughts were circling around in his head, the sounds of something crashing through the underbrush caused Elijah to cut off his thinking. He sat up, tapping Channeler on the head with the tip of his shoe to rouse the slumbering Pokémon enough that he would be able to fight back if needed. Caper toddled back over to Elijah, pressing his small round body up against Elijah's pant leg. It was only a few minutes before a medium sized creature exploded from the brush and into the small clearing.

The Pokémon that emerged was all sleek, graceful lines, long white fur and dark blue claws and face. Well it could have looked better Elijah thought to himself. The white fur was matted with blood and dirt, open cuts and battle wounds marring the Pokémon's body. It was very thin, panting as though it couldn't quite catch its breath and hadn't exploded into the clearing so much as fallen while running full tilt into the clearing. It struggled to its feet and froze, noticing Elijah and his two Pokémon for the first time. The intruder bared its fangs, snarling as it backed away. Elijah made a split second decision.

"Stun spore!" Caper untwisted his head vines and a cloud of yellow pollen emerged, surrounding the wounded Pokémon. Twitching violently the white creature stumbled, back legs seemingly not cooperating with the rest of its body, it shook its head and tried to regain its footing to no avail. Elijah wasted no time in pulling out the still un used greatball he had bought on his birthday and threw it at the downed Pokémon. The greatball shook, once, twice, and then sat still. Elijah looked down at Caper.

"I really don't see why people have such a hard time catching you guys." He said walking over to the greatball. "I've caught two Pokémon with no problems." Just as he finished that sentence, the greatball, whose capture button had never unlit, split open, releasing a snarling, white furred fury. "Whoa!" Elijah shouted in surprise, and then acting on instinct, whipped an empty pokeball right in the feral Pokémon's face. This time the pokeball shook violently, once, twice, three times and he had already recalled Channeler and was preparing to get the hell out of dodge when the red circled dinged and faded to white.

Elijah picked up a stick and poked the pokeball. Nothing happened. Gingerly, ready to jump back at any second, Elijah reached out and picked up the pokeball. Nothing continued to happen. Elijah let out a sigh of relief and slipped the pokeball into his pocket.

And not a moment too soon. Elijah had just reached into his bag to pull out Channeler's pokeball when two much older trainers burst into the clearing. They frantically searched the clearing; both looked as though they had been running through the forest for a while, scratches on the exposed ski, and dirt and mud on their shoes and pants. Spotting Elijah, the taller one strode over to him.

"Hey! You! Kid!" The trainer's gruff voice matched his rough appearance. "You seen an absol run through here?" Elijah stepped back, seeming to shrink in on himself and fiddled with his bag strap.

"Went that way." He pointed down a twisting heavily wooded path, in the exact opposite direction from where he was headed. The second trainer was already racing down the path, the one talking to Elijah gave him a rough pat on the head and hurried after his friend, throwing a quick thanks over his shoulder as he went. Elijah stayed hunched in on himself for a few more minutes, until he was sure the two trainers weren't coming back. Once satisfied, he straightened up and strolled off, absently humming under his breath.

Before he had become a trainer, he had cursed his small stature, messy hair and chubby cheeks, everything that made other people think him younger and weaker than he was. Now he was damn happy he looked like a kid younger then he actually was. Elijah had learned rather quickly that playing up a hopeless , confused looking little kid was a good strategy for making battlers over confident and people at their ease. No thought you had a super strong abra up your sleeve if you stuttered and dropped your pokeball instead of releasing. On top of that, Elijah found that if you used the right amount fidgeting and nervous tics, most trainers took pity on you and went easy. By the time they realized Elijah was not only a competent battler but a fairly good one, it was usually too late. The downsides to this were that he could only pull it off once or twice a day, depending on how active Channeler was, the con was wasted with Caper at the moment, and he had to move around a lot in order to not get caught by angry trainers and so that word of him didn't get passed around.

But now Elijah had an absol and a strong one at that! He smiled to himself as he released Channeler.

"Take us back buddy."

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><p>AN: So here you get a bit of Elijah's manipulative side. Thanks for the faves and reviews guys. And I'm not going to jinx anything by trying to predict when I'll get the next chapter out.


	4. Through my blood sweat and tears

Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon

Look! I updated! Again! This time it's pokemon!

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><p>In retrospect capturing an unknown pokemon and then expecting it to obey you instantly was a pretty dumb idea, Elijah was ready and willing to admit it. He had the claw and teeth marks to ground him firmly in reality. Elijah picked sullenly at the large white bandage around his arm. The absol was still un-named, Elijah was debating Killer or Ripper or Unholy Terror.<p>

When he had taken it back to the Pokemon center that first time, the nurse had looked at the absol's stats and given him a downright scary glare. In a very steely tone she had asked him how long he had owned the absol, fingers already clacking over the keys of her computer. Elijah had answered truthfully, her attitude had shifted from cold hard anger to disproving and stern. This absol as far too strong for a beginner trainer like himself, she had said, it also appeared to have suffered through a series of terrible battles, but didn't seem to be trained itself. The Nurse's best guess was that the absol, who was a male, might have been run out of his own territory during mating season and had drifted over to these routes. Elijah just nodded his head, and did not elaborate on how he had found the absol, or the two trainers chasing after it, merely sticking to his very truthful story of running into in the woods.

The nurse had sighed and tried to warn him again. The absol wouldn't listen to Elijah; he was a new trainer and had no badges to his name. She tried to persuade Elijah to release the absol to the care of the pokemon center, where he would be well cared for until a trainer with the right badges and experience could train him properly. Elijah had listened to everything the nurse said and then politely and firmly told her in no uncertain terms that he was keeping the absol. He had caught him, and he would train him, end of story.

The reality of the nurse's warnings was driven home when Elijah let the absol out for the first time. Ten rather expensive stitches and a quick shopping trip for a new shirt later and Elijah was more than ready to admit that maybe he had bitten off more than he could chew. It was also rather embarrassing to have to face the disproving stare of the nurse every time he returned to the center after the latest failed training session. But Elijah was nothing if not determined and he had tried a variety of different tactics to get the absol to listen to him. They included: bribes(which provided a few moments distraction before Elijah got clawed), letting the absol out at different times of the day to see what it preferred(night time obviously, he was faster to snap at Elijah in the early morning.), and even attempting to fight him into submission(Elijah's arm had looked like he had arm wrestled barbed wire.). None of which had even remotely worked.

Elijah was hesitant to ask other trainers hanging around the pokemon center for help. He didn't know, nor wanted to know what the two older trainers had been doing, tracking the absol. But he knew that if he asked around for help, word might get back to them and he didn't want to draw attention to himself. So he continued to suffer along with the untamed absol, doing his best, even though it wasn't good enough.

"Hey sis, I was hoping to catch you when you were in, but I guess I must have missed you…or you're sleeping." Elijah scratched his head and then continued. "Anyway, I just wanted to call and let you know that I made it to Oreburgh City safely. Hope you got the money I sent." Elijah twirled the cord around his finger. "I caught a new pokemon, he's an absol and more than a handful, but I think I'm doing okay." Yesterday the absol had waited five whole minutes before attempting to maul him. Elijah thought it was a sad state of affairs when that was considered progress, but he was stuck for the time being at least. "I don't have any badges yet, so I'm going to challenge Roark for one, hopefully later today. I'll call you and let you know how I did." The kid behind Elijah in line for the phone cleared his throat loudly and meaningfully. Elijah grinned mareepishly at him. "Alright, I have to go now, Love you sis!" He hung up and moved out of the way as the kid behind him wasted no time in picking up the phone.

Elijah slouched back to his room. Thankfully the center wasn't busy so he didn't have to share the room with other trainers. The room was big enough for two bunk beds; Elijah had claimed the bottom bunk of the right side. Sleeping closer to the floor allowed for Caper and Channeler to have easy access to move around early or late at night without waking him up. He let out a breath as the closed the door behind him and dropped onto his lower bunk with a sigh of relief. Between traveling here and attempting to train the absol, Elijah was absolutely wiped.

With a groan, he sat up and reached for his shoes. He'd feel better once he had a nap. After untying one shoe and letting it drop off his foot, he fished around in his pockets, pulling out his wallet and some crumpled pieces of paper and finally his two pokeballs. Elijah would usually let Channeler and Caper out in the evenings for some much needed bonding time. Caper immediately set out to explore the room, even though it had not changed since the night before, he wandered around, cooing to himself and running his stubby arms over the legs of the furniture of the room, eventually disappearing under the bunk bed where Elijah could the occasional sneeze as his pokemon was affected by the dust. Channeler had already set up on the bed, curled tightly into a ball on the center of the comforter, next to where Elijah was perched, wrestling off his remaining shoe.

Elijah had assumed that Channeler was fast asleep, until he felt the inquisitive touch on his mind. Channeler didn't quite communicate in words, but Elijah was assured by a nurse that that was perfectly normal of an abra and upon evolution, Channeler would be able to converse using human language with Elijah. As an abra though, he could only make vague impressions and emotions known. Elijah had gotten quite good at figuring out what Channeler meant, he had known the abra from a young age and was used to his form of 'talking'.

"I'm keeping the absol, Chan." He said, leaning down to slip his socks off. A side of concern seeped into his mind. "He might not be very…cooperative now," Elijah winced as the stiches pulled when he stretched his legs out, wiggling his bare toes and reveling in the feel of cool tiles against his sore heels. "But he'll come around." He grinned at the projection of disbelief. "Eventually." He allowed and Channeler responded with a distinct disgruntled feeling. Elijah laughed and reached over, tugging Channeler halfway onto his lap and running his fingers through the abra's short fur, he whispered to the half-asleep pokemon. "Just you wait."

* * *

><p>This is a kinda 'blah' chapter. Next one I introduce A GIRL!<p>

So yeah, stay tuned for that bit of nonsense.


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